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Herald Sun
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Herald Sun
South Australian high school trad wife debate question divides
A hot button topic put forward for Year 9 students to discuss during a statewide debate competition has caused a stir online. Debating SA, a non-profit organisation that runs debating competitions in South Australia, revealed its latest topics ahead of next week's debates. However, it was the topic for round three — 'The 'Trad Wife' movement is good for women' — that has raised eyebrows and sparked fierce discussion. The 'Trad Wife' movement has been popularised by the likes of influencer Hannah Neeleman, also known as Ballerina Farm, who has more than 10 million followers on Instagram, and Nara Smith, a US-based model and influencer with nearly 5 million followers. The movement is often rooted in 'traditional' values, based on the idea of a woman looking after the home and children while the woman's husband goes off to work and earn money. Typically, it is associated with conservative values where the woman is seen as submissive, however defenders say those who follow it, do so as a matter of personal choice. The topic will start being debated next week as part of the third round of Debating SA's competition, for which all schools in the state are eligible. Picture: Getty Images Debating SA's topic choice left many questioning whether it was appropriate for Year 9 students to research and discuss, let alone be aware of the phrase 'Trad Wife'. 'Personally I think being able to debate around a topic even one that is clearly terrible is still an important skill,' one social media user said. 'But the point of contention is that tradwife stuff promotes not only staying at home, but actual straight up misogyny. And it would always be controversial to debate 'is it okay to hate women?'.' Nara Smith is one of the biggest faces in the 'tradwife' movement. Picture: Instagram/Nara Smith Another said: 'This is a huge misstep by the debating orgs (and I'm saying this as a former high school debater and coach).' 'Sounds like those who champion 'critical thinking, cultural nous and debate' to set this topic have NFI of the current cultural implications of the 'tradwife' movement online, especially its direct pipeline to white supremacy and misogyny,' another added. But others argued there was no real issue. 'I thought one of the points of debating was arguing for a side you don't necessarily agree with. My son recently was involved with a school debate where the topic was 'Is the current climate change man made?'. I don't see a trad wife debate being much different,' one parent wrote. Another weighed in: 'Honestly, if the goal is to teach kids how to think critically about the content they're bombarded with online, this isn't the worst topic to explore. 'The tradwife movement is something they'll run into on TikTok or YouTube eventually, so better to unpack it in a guided, moderated classroom than leave them to figure it out through algorithm-fed echo chambers. Context and intent matter. If this was framed as a critical discussion — not an endorsement — then it's literally education doing its job.' Students are set to debate whether the 'trad wife' movement is 'good for women'. Following the outrage, Debating SA sent a clarification to schools, saying that students 'must look critically at sources'. 'It goes without saying that any websites that denigrate women (or any person) are not a good source of information and are not relevant to the topic,' the clarification, which also appeared on its website, said. 'To avoid any confusion about the topic, the following definitions for the purpose of the debate apply: 'Tradwife is a portmanteau for 'traditional wife', a woman who embraces traditional gender roles, primarily focusing on home making and family care, while her husband is the primary breadwinner. This can include cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and maintaining the home. 'This term is intended to be synonymous with the idea of a stay at home parent.' It caused uproar, and the organisation has since clarified that it meant 'stay at home' mum. Picture: Instagram/@ballerinafarm 'The tradwife movement is therefore a group of people who support a lifestyle such as the above. Note that this does not include any concept of 'submission' as some sources may define. 'Good for women generally refers to something that has a positive impact on women's lives and wellbeing. Note specifically that the definition does not infer 'all women'.' In a further email provided to Sonja Lowen, the chairman of Debating SA, said: 'The positive response to the topic and our organisation [has] been well expressed by a number of people in the mainstream media. 'The negative response from some of the public has been very illuminating in the way in which they chose to express not only their views. but also the idea that there can be no debate about this subject. It seems that thinking about a subject that they don't agree with has become a radical act. Shutting down discussion is not a good idea and is the antithesis of a free society.' Ms Lowen said it made her realise debate provides a regulated forum for students to be able to present a case in a measured way, 'something some of the public would do well to emulate'. 'We expect our debaters to present their case with evidence and reasoning. It is very necessary for young people to be able to develop the skills to navigate their way in what is now a very complicated social landscape and those skills are perfected and refined by debating,' she said. 'Debating is an intellectual and academic discipline that allows the participants to examine both sides of a topic regardless of their own personal beliefs. This ability to explore both sides makes us tolerant of other views. Thinking is hard work and we should not surrender our intellectual independence because a topic may be difficult or in this case deemed unacceptable by some of the public.' But some were not satisfied with the reasoning from Debating SA. 'This isn't moderated in class discussion, it's a discussion topic for a Debating Competition, and the organisers have said that they used trad-wife as a synonym for 'stay at home parent',' one said. 'Honestly, their excuse sounds pretty pathetic – trad-wife is not a synonym for stay at home parent, it's a controversial social movement with significant connections to right-wing politics and influencers.' Another added: 'They're engaged enough to know the term, but not the context. 'Tradwife' is absolutely not a synonym for 'stay at home parent'. They've gone awry from the outset.' 'The issue is them conflating SAHM with Trad Wife. Trad wife is a social movement. They are vastly not the same thing. And the Trad Wife may not necessarily have children,' another said. Originally published as High school 'Tradwife' debate topic divides
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Fury over year 9 students in South Australia being asked to debate whether the tradwife movement is good for women
Year 9 students in South Australia are about to debate whether 'the 'tradwife' movement is good for women' – but the topic has sparked fierce discussion before the debates have even started. The topic will start being debated next week as part of the third round of Debating SA's competition, for which all schools in the state are eligible. After the topic was announced in May, some people questioned on social media whether the topic was appropriate, with some concerned that female students arguing in the affirmative would be making the case for their own subjugation. On social media women describing themselves as tradwives portray an old-fashioned, homemaking existence of baking and child rearing. But the tradwife movement has also become associated with anti-feminist sentiment, amplified by misogynist figures including Andrew Tate and those in the manosphere. Debating SA said it was shocked and surprised by the reaction. It took the unusual step of sending a clarification to schools at the weekend saying the definition it was using was synonymous with a stay-at-home parent. A spokesperson said when the organisation had researched the topic, the darker side of the trend did not surface. But once it heard about it, it wrote to schools to say it saw 'tradwife' as a portmanteau of 'traditional wife … someone who stayed at home, looked after the children, kept the house', without any concept of submission to the man of the house. The organisation said it had received abusive phone calls. The spokesperson told Guardian Australia people had been 'ringing up screaming, ranting, raving and carrying on' and accusing the not-for-profit of undoing centuries of female advancement. 'They were outside people who've got nothing to do with debating, who don't know how it works,' the spokesperson said. 'Debating is very formal … and not only do we not tolerate incivility, it never happens. If you follow the rules and regulations there's no room for rudeness. 'It's an intellectual, academic exercise bound up in civility, politeness and good manners. 'They didn't follow the rules!' A Queensland-based teen educator and author, Rebecca Sparrow, shared an email on Facebook on 5 June from a reader 'horrified' by the debating topic. 'Fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls and boys are being asked to argue that this is good for women … that women being subjugated is good,' the reader wrote in the email. Sparrow wrote that the term tradwife 'refers to women adhering to strict gender roles akin to a 1950s housewife who eschews a career in place of homemaking because that's her role/place'. ''Trad wife' is not code for stay-at-home parent,' she wrote, and later added: 'For those who think it's a great debate topic – we can agree to disagree on this one.' Sparrow later closed comments on her post, saying she did not have time to continually monitor them to 'ensure a war hasn't erupted'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion South Australia's education minister, Blair Boyer, told ABC radio on Wednesday that he had to ask his staff what the tradwife movement was. 'And I understand it comes with some controversy, but I think it's a balancing act in terms of debating topics, between having something which is of interest to the people doing the debating … and not having something which is, I guess, overly provocative,' he said. In May the Macquarie Dictionary said the 'controversial term sounds like an insult to some, and a badge of honour to others'. 'However you feel about it, a tradwife is a woman who has willingly embraced the duties and values of a wife in what some call a traditional marriage,' it said. Kristy Campion, a researcher into the far right, told ABC's Radio National in May that tradwife culture drew on 'cottage core' dreams of a simpler life. But she noted the far right had also linked it to 'white womanhood', anti-feminism, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant sentiments. 'We also see them fiercely opposing things like abortion or divorce,' she said. Speaking not about the tradwife debate but about debating in general, Fiona Mueller, a public policy researcher from the Centre for Independent Studies, said Australians had become 'strangely fearful' of debating, when it is something that 'is at the heart of our democratic process'. She said she worried that teachers had 'baulked' at teaching it because they were concerned about controversial topics. She wanted to see them confident in running debates as there was solid evidence they helped build thinking, reasoning, reading, researching, persuading and presentation skills. 'We need to rediscover the more considered gathering of information and coming to a conclusion,' she said. 'That is the single greatest responsibility of each generation – to set a good example for the next generation, and one of the things we need to set that example in, is respectful, thoughtful debate.'
